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Yusuke Urameshi
Yusuke Urameshi is the main protagonist of the anime series YuYu Hakusho. Voiced by Nozomu Sasaki in the original Japanese and Justin Cook in the English dub. His name is a kind of pun. His first means ghost helper and his last name is a kind of wail that ghost make. Appearance Yusuke has black hair, usually slicked back, with brown eyes. He wore a green jumpsuit the whole first season and at the beginning of season 2. At the Dark tournament he wears a yellow sleeveless shirt and blue pants, with black shoes. When he is demonkin appearance, he has long black hair that is wild and demonic markings on his face, arms and chest. Personality Having no father and with his mother always off somewhere else, getting drunk or partying, Yusuke has grown up in a very neglectful environment. He's short tempered, impulsive, and likes to intimidate those who are afraid of him. One of his most notable traits is his desire to fight, which becomes more noticeable as the series progresses. Yusuke has been noted on many occasions to being rather unintelligent, and, at times, just plain stupid. Yusuke's desire to fight is more out of enjoyment of a good brawl, and surprisingly Yusuke doesn't like killing if he can avoid it. Even though Yusuke is feared by most students; and severely disliked by almost all of the teachers, he is generally misunderstood. Keiko Yukimura is one of the very few who knows Yusuke is actually very kind, and she sympathizes with his problems in life. Yusuke and Keiko quickly develop strong feelings for each other; and he is fiercely protective of her, almost always worrying about her well-being. Yusuke initially didn't like Kuwabara, but as the series progresses, the two develop a mutual bond and respect for each other, with Kuwabara being the only person who truly understands him, eventually concluding with them having a brother-like bond, a notable example, is when he tried desperately to stop Younger Toguro from killing him. Yusuke and Hiei have a serious rivalry and, at times, Yusuke seems almost intimidated by Hiei's remarkable skills. Yet, each of them has respect for the other, and will put their lives on the line to help one another. Yusuke is very close to Kurama and has a great amount of confidence in him. Yusuke respects Kurama's wisdom, sometimes looking to him for leadership advice when he's not sure what to do. 'Character Relationships' *'Keiko Yukimura- Childhood friend/Girlfriend' *'Kazuma Kuwabara- Rival, later on Sidekick/Best Friend' *'Kurama - Ally/Good Friend' *'Hiei - Rival/Ally/Friend' *'Botan - Assistant/Somewhat of a Guardian/Friend' *'Koenma - Former Boss/Friend' *'Atsuko Urameshi - Mother' *'Unnamed Father - Father' *'Raizen - Ancestral Forefather' *'Genkai - Reiki Teacher' *'Younger Toguro - Enemy/Rival' *'Shinobu Sensui - Enemy/Rival' *'Jin- Ally/Friend' *'Toya - Ally/Friend' *'Chu- Ally/Friend' *'Hokushin- Ally/Servant' *'Mukuro- Ally' *'Rinku - Ally/Friend' *'Yomi- Rival' *'Suzuka - Ally' *'Shishiwakamaru- Ally' *'Yukina-Ally' Synopsis Spirit Detective Saga Yusuke Urameshi was 14 years of age in the beginning of Yu-Yu-Hakusho, is the toughest member of his middle school and is the rival of Kazuma Kuwabara. He is a stereotypical bad kid, with a bad attendance record and picks fights with other kids at school. In the manga, he also smokes, gambles and drinks.Yu Yu Hakusho manga; Chapter 1, Page 32 While skipping school and being berated by his mother, Yusuke loafs around the town. Yusuke entertains a child by making silly faces, but when the kid wanders into the street in front of an oncoming car, Yusuke shoves him out of the way. He is struck by the car, and killed.Yu Yu Hakusho manga; Chapter 1 As a ghost, Yusuke is greeted by an a typical version of the Grim Reaper; a bubbly, cheerful young woman named Botan.Yu Yu Hakusho manga; Chapter 1, Page 31 She remarks that the members of the underworld, including the Buddha, did not expect Yusuke to selflessly save the child's life. Thus, they have no place for him in the afterlife. She remarks that Yusuke can return to life, but he initially declines.Yu Yu Hakusho manga; Chapter 1, Page 37 Yusuke's mind changes after he attends his wake, where people he knows pay their condolences to his mother. Atsuko, his mother, is extremely distraught, borderline catatonic, about losing her son. Keiko Yukimura (his classmate) sobs uncontrollably, yelling Yusuke's name. Kuwabara appears, angry and upset that Yusuke died before they could finish their battles. When two of Yusuke's teachers belittle him at the wake, Mr. Takenaka, another teacher, berates them for insulting him. He pays his respects to Atsuko and sobs at Yusuke's passing; only then, Atsuko reacts, collapsing in tears at the mention of Yusuke. Lastly, the child whom Yusuke saved and his mother show up, and when the child asks if he can play again with Yusuke, his mother cries and hugs him. Understanding that he meant more to others than they let on, he decides to come back. Yusuke is given an egg by Koenma, acting lord of Spirit World (in place of his father, who often left to work in other places), and is told that it will hatch a Spirit Beast, which will help him get back to life. However, he must be a genuinely good person. If he is evil, the beast will devour him. Yusuke sacrifices the beast to save Keiko, who had received dreams and messages from Yusuke's ghost that he would be returning to life, and she needed to take care of his body so that he would be able to return to it. However, a fire starts in Yusuke's home and his body runs the risk of being incinerated. Keiko runs into the fire to protect it, and is trapped in the fire. Yusuke gave up all the power gained from his good deeds after his death to have Koenma save her. Koenma used this to put out some of the flames and opened up a path for her to escape from the fire. Due to this incident, with Koenma directly in contact with Yusuke's soul, he figured that the wave cycle of Yusuke's power is extremely long and has to meet the right time to be resurrected or he would have to wait for another fifty-two years (fifty years in the Japanese version and English manga)Yu Yu Hakusho manga; Chapter 17 and Anime Episode 5 before the next chance and decided to let Yusuke return to life earlier even though the fire incident should have delayed the process since his power gained from good deeds were used up. The only way for Yusuke to be resurrected is by a kiss from someone who is very close to him until midnight. Yusuke could tell, by dream, to three people he knew in order to do this, but he only told Keiko and Kuwabara since his mother started drinking and would not go to bed. Kuwabara did not believe the dream, due to its awkward subject matter, and Keiko got delayed by her mother's illness. Botan possessed Keiko's mother to leave a message saying Yusuke was in a more dire state than she does. Keiko manages to kiss Yusuke in time, and Yusuke is returned. After returning, Yusuke is surprised to notice a demon inhabiting the body of a street punk. Botan shows up and tells Yusuke that his experience with death allowed him to do these things. He is to become Earth's Spirit Detective, and protect the human race from demons. Yusuke engages in many difficult trials in his first assignments as Detective. The first is to recover three stolen artifacts from Spirit World. Koenma trains him by teaching him how to fire his spirit energy, energy possessed by humans and spirits, as a weapon. This is Yusuke's signature attack, the Spirit Gun. Yusuke attempts to combat these three thieves: Hiei, who stole the Sword of Shadows; Kurama, who stole a mirror called the Forlorn Hope; and Goki, who stole a soul-stealing article called the Orb of Baast. Yusuke was able to defeat Gouki with the aid of Botan and his Spirit Gun. Kurama willingly turns over the Forlorn Hope, as he only wanted to use its power to save his mother's life. Kurama intended to sacrifice his life for the mirror to save hers, but Yusuke selflessly asked the mirror to take his so Kurama can enjoy his mother's life. The mirror granted Kurama's wish, taking half of each of their lives, but killing neither, and Yusuke took the mirror. Yusuke and Botan then went to fight Hiei, who kidnapped Keiko and tried to turn her into a demon. While Botan staved off the transformation, Yusuke fought the extremely-fast demon, and managed to defeat him by reflecting his Spirit Gun off of the Forlorn Hope, intentionally missing Hiei to strike it and causing the arrogant demon to believe Yusuke missed. Yusuke then was sent to the compound of Master Genkai, an aged fighter who was looking for a successor to her powerful Spirit Wave technique (Reikō Hadō Ken or Spirit Light Wave Fist in the original Japanese version). Botan warned that a demon named Rando would probably try to inherit her technique. Yusuke fought through her tournament and defeated Rando in the end (out of luck), becoming her successor. For the next two weeks (in the Japanese anime, it is a month and in the English anime, it is six months), Yusuke undergoes tough training with Genkai. As a result, his strength radically heightens, push him from a D-class to a C-class. Yusuke was then sent to Maze Castle to defeat the four Saint Beasts and stop them from taking over the human race with demon parasites. Kuwabara decided to go with Yusuke, and Koenma sent Kurama and Hiei, who were on probation in the human world, to assist. Yusuke fought his way to Suzaku, the leader of the group, and managed to defeat him, but at the cost of his own life energy. Kuwabara, the only human of the group, saved him by transferring part of his own life energy. Yusuke then goes with Kuwabara and Botan to rescue a beautiful ice apparition named Yukina, of whom Kuwabara becomes smitten. However, Yukina is actually Hiei's twin sister, a fact that Kuwabara and even Yukina herself is unaware of. Yusuke fights all the way to the Toguro brothers. Yusuke and Kuwabara defeat them with teamwork and rescue the maiden, but it turns out that the Toguros threw the fight on purpose. The younger Toguro brother coerces Yusuke to join the Dark Tournament (Ankoku Būtsukai or Black Martial Arts Tournament in the original Japanese) and defeat him in a real fight. Dark Tournament Saga To prepare for the Dark Tournament, Yusuke trains with Genkai for two months, moving him from a middle C class to an upper C class. Afterwards, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei, along with Genkai as 'The Masked Fighter', enter the Dark Tournament as the guest team, Team Urameshi. Often at times barely escaping out of the fights alive, and despite heavy bias against them by the tournament committee, they fight their way to the final of the tournament to face Team Toguro. During the semis, Genkai transfers most of her Spirit Energy through the Spirit Wave Orb so Yusuke can stand a chance against Younger Toguro, moving him from a lower B class to a middle B class. Before the finals begin, Genkai and Toguro face off in an attempt to kill one another. It is revealed that Toguro was Genkai's partner from a previous tournament. After suffering a mortal wound, Genkai, with the last of her strength, explains that when they won the tournament fifty years ago, Toguro, who was once human, had his body become a demon's in order to preserve his strength and youth. Before dying, Genkai warns Yusuke not to become like Toguro. Yusuke becomes furious with Toguro over his master's death and vows to defeat him. In the finals, Yusuke now faces Toguro. However after Toguro reveals his full power, Yusuke cannot face him and, in order to bring out Yusuke's hidden power, Toguro kills Kuwabara. This brings Yusuke from a middle B to an upper B. Yusuke prepares his final spirit gun while Toguro undergoes another power up, bringing him from what was actually about 85% of his strength to 100% of his strength. After unleashing their attacks, Yusuke comes out on top. It is revealed that Kuwabara faked his death to bring out Yusuke's power. Before they leave the island, Koenma revives Genkai. The others he fought in previous rounds were: Round 1 - Chu. Round 2 - Assisted fighting M1, M2, and M3. Round 3 - Bakken/Bakuken and Jin. Round 4 - Absent (was receiving Spirit Orb from Genkai). Finals - Younger Toguro. Chapter Black Saga In the Chapter Black Saga, Yusuke must stop Shinobu Sensui from opening a gate to demon world while defeating six other humans with newly awakened psychic powers. When he realizes he cannot defeat Sensui's true self, only possessing lower A class power against Sensui's low S-class power, he decides to have Sensui kill him to awake Hiei, Kurama, and Kuwabara's hidden potential. After he dies, his ancestral demonic blood resurrects him and boosts his power to lower S class demon power. It is revealed that he is a Mazoku, or a descendant of a Yōkai Clan (the Amazaku demons in the English dub), his ancestor Raizen having conceived a child with a human woman. Raizen made it so that when the stars reach a certain alignment, and his descendant is worthy of awakening, they would become a yōkai. When Yusuke died the first time, he was too weak to awaken the yokai blood within him. It was his subsequent missions afterwards, especially his fight against the younger Toguro, that wove and mended this deficiency. Hence, his death at the hands of Sensui caused him to come back as a mazoku demon, pushing him to S class power. After this transformation, he fights Sensui in the Demon World. Even with his new demon energy he still cannot defeat Sensui, until he is then possessed by his ancestor Raizen to help control his new-found power. This causes Yusuke's body to transform yet again, gaining demonic eyes and long white hair, and bringing out his potential power, boosting him to upper S class demon power. As a result, Raizen, through Yusuke's body, kills Sensui which upsets Yusuke greatly. So much in fact, Yusuke wanted to track down Raizen over the ordeal, thinking that if he was to kill a human like Sensui, he should have been the one to make the decision, not his ancestor. Koenma informed him that the passage way to the living world and the demon world was closing. He presented Yusuke with a choice; stay in the demon world forever, or return to his home. Yusuke chose the latter in the end. Three Kings Saga In the Three Kings saga, Yusuke is removed from his position as Spirit Detective because he is considered too dangerous for the Human Realm. The Great Emperor Enma (King Yama in the English anime) wants Yusuke dead so that he does not become as dangerous as Sensui. Yusuke agrees to do so since Raizen interrupted his match against Sensui. He has everyone meet at Genkai's temple for a farewell and promises Keiko that he will return in three years time. After meeting Raizen, he learns that Raizen is dying because he needs to eat humans to survive, which he gave up after he met a female doctor who is Yusuke's ancestor. Yusuke fights him, but loses to him quite easily; then learns that Mukuro and Yomi are just as strong as the current, and weakened, Raizen. After a year of training Yusuke, Raizen dies, but reveals to Yusuke that if he had eaten humans he would have already been the strongest yōkai. Yusuke chooses to hold a tournament, since he knows he is incapable of ruling Raizen's territory. During his match against Yomi, Yusuke suddenly realizes he has lost his purpose, and questions why he is fighting. He used to fight because as a child, he had been angry and neglected, and took out his anger by fighting. Then he became a Spirit Detective and fought powerful men such as Toguro and Sensui to save the world, although they were actually looking for someone more powerful to defeat them. Yusuke wonders whether he is now just waiting for someone to defeat him, now that his anger is gone and all he has is fighting, but Raizen's voices comes back and refreshes his mind. He remembers that he is fighting, not just to find his own identity, but for the sake of his friends as well. From this renewed strength, Yusuke discovers a new seikouki, and the fight between him and Yomi comes down to one punch. Rushing at each other, the fight would have been a tie, except that Yomi was able to continue standing because of an impromptu shout from Shura. Yusuke falls unconscious and doesn't awaken until after the tournament ends. Afterwards Yusuke leaves Makai shortly between the time after the tournament ends and before his three years are up. He then leaves for the Human World and meets up with Keiko on Genkai's beach. Final Chapters At the final chapters of the manga, sometime after the end of the tournament, he opened a ramen booth and restarted his spirit detective business. Most of the work he received are getting signatures from friends of his that became famous idols. In the bonus OVA it is revealed that he enters the second Makai Tournament with Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei by his side. Equipment * Spiritual Peering Lenses: One of the first items Yusuke gets to help him out as a spirit detective, it is able to see hidden items in clothing and implied to see through clothes. It is stopped being used after the first arc, as the enemies focus more on combat than retrieving items. * Spectral Energy Meter: One of the first items Yusuke gets to help him out as a spirit detective, it is able to locate identified demons no matter how far they are, however it breaks after sensing Rando implying it is useless on C class and higher ranked demons. * Spiritual Shooting Ring: One of the first items Yusuke gets to help him out as a spirit detective, it is able to boost his offensive spiritual energy at the cost of exhaustion. It is implied to be removed after Yusuke trains hard enough under Genkai to fight C-class demons and higher. Techniques/Moves Though primarily a long distance fighter, in close combat, Yusuke is able to infuse parts of his body with Spirit Energy in an effort to enhance his ability in physical combat, especially his punches, this is called Spirit Punch in the games. *'Spirit Gun' (霊丸, Reigan): Yusuke concentrates his Spirit Energy into his right index finger and releases it as a projectile. It can be from a small shot, to a full-sized cannon blast, to a near atomic-explosion, as demonstrated in the demon world tournament. It's only weakness is that Yusuke can only use it a certain number of times per day in the beginning. At first he can only use it once per day, but by the beginning of the Dark Tournament, after much training under Genkai, Yusuke can use it four times per day. It was originally given to him by Spirit World to fight off demons in his cases, but later becomes his signature move. :*'Demon Gun' (妖丸, Yōgan): This is the demon version of the Spirit Gun. After he is reborn as a half demon, Yusuke gains the ability to fire his demon energy from his index finger. It is a vastly powerful attack. Yusuke fires a concentrated crimson blast of powerful demon energy that inflicts greater damage than a normal Spirit Gun did prior to his transformation. By the end of the series Yusuke is able to fire both his spirit and demon gun with virtually unlimited ammo, so long as he has energy. :*'Spirit Gun Mega' (超霊丸, Chō Reigan): In his battle against Toguro, Yusuke uses up all his remaining energy to summon a gigantic energy bullet. Though unnamed in both the anime and manga, it is called such in the games. *'Spirit Shotgun' (ショットガン, Shottogan): Yusuke gathers spirit energy into his fist to form a large blast of spirit energy from it shot out in less powerful but many blasts. While the technique is not as powerful as the spirit gun, a few advantages it has is that the shots are wide spread, which makes it highly effective against quick or invisible opponents or large numbers of weak enemies. Yusuke first used this technique against a group of thugs, who were controlled by the Demon World Insects, but has only rarely used this technique since. *'Spirit Gun Double' (霊丸連射, Reigan Renshā, translated as Spirit Gun Rapid-Fire): Yusuke learns to shoot all the blasts of his Spirit Gun rapidly. This technique was only used against Chu in the finals of the first round of the Dark Tournament by using Yusuke's remaining Spirit Gun shots together. He uses a variation of this when he tries to break though Yomi's Demon Energy Absorption Wall during the Demon World Tournament. *'Headbutt' (ヘッドバット, Heddobatto): One of Yusuke's special techniques. He uses it against Chu. ]] *'Spirit Wave' (霊光弾, Reikōdan, translates as Spirit Light Bullet): Yusuke uses it to turn his entire body into a Spirit Gun. Instead of using his index finger to focus Spirit energy, Yusuke uses his entire body for this attack. This makes for extremely-powerful close-range attacks that negate the opponent's attack, but it's extremely difficult and dangerous to use. This was first seen being used against Jin in the Dark Tournament Saga. He tried using this against Sensui, in the original Japanese version, but was kicked out of range before he could do anything. It also has some healing properties, as it is able to heal from the wounds Kazuya did when he shot at him, close range. *'Intestine Killer' (内臓殺し, Naizō Goroshi): A massive body blow rush. He uses it against Sensui. Kuwabara says he could not eat for 1 week when Yusuke did it to him. *'Transformation': After his atavism, Yusuke temporarily transforms into this Raizen-inspired demon form whenever his emotions, most-likely negative ones like anger, run high. The full strength of this form is unknown, but it increased his speed and strength to easily dominate against an opponent who had a slight advantage over him. Anime-Specific Techniques *'Sacred Energy' (聖光気, Sei Kō Ki, translated as Sacred Light Energy): During his fight against Yomi, Yusuke, remembering all of his friends supporting him, is able to mix his body's Demon Energy and Spirit Energy together to be able to generate his own version of Sacred Energy, different from the version that was previously used by Sensui. It's just as powerful, but hard to maintain for more than a few hours; more than enough time for Yusuke's battle with Yomi. :*To be clear, this isn't Sacred Energy. Koenma only describes this as 'something different; something brand-new'. 'Trivia' *In Yoshihiro Togashi's second famous manga series, Hunter X Hunter, Yusuke makes a cameo appearance along side Hiei and Kurama, as action figures in the room of Miruki Zoldyck. In chapter 69, volume 8. *The main protagonist of Hunter X Hunter, Gon Freecss, bares similarities and references Yusuke on several topics: **Gon's father, Ging Freecss is identical to Yusuke in physical appearance, with the exception of a widow's peak and Ging having unkempt, spiky hair. Gon is identical to Ging when the latter was a child, ergo Gon might end up resembling Yusuke in his adulthood. **Gon's friends and occasional teammates, Killua, Kurapika and Leorio, also seem to resemble at a certain degree with Hiei, Kurama and Kuwabara, respectively. **All though not as reckless and not being a foul mouth like Yusuke, Gon is prone to making half-baked decisions and going head first into battles. **Just as Yusuke positions his right hand into a gun position, so as to to fire the spirit gun, Gon uses a similar gesture called scissors with which he creates a blade from his aura. **Gon never knew his mother the same way Yusuke never knew his father. **While visiting for the first time the nation of NGL (an all nature preserve country), Gon was asked to wear clothing made from all natural fibers. These clothes where the same martial arts attire that were worn by Yusuke during the Dark Tournament. **Just as Yusuke was ranked on third place for the most popular character in the Yu Yu Hakusho manga, Gon got voted on third place in the Hunter X Hunter popularity contest. References Category:Characters